White Plains mother and son brighten holiday season by returning lost memento

A White Plains mother and son are brightening the holiday season by returning a special memento.

Veronica Jean Seltzer

Dec 16, 2023, 3:39 AM

Updated 356 days ago

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A White Plains mother and son are brightening the holiday season by returning a special memento.
Laurel Torres worries she may have just had her last holiday visit with her second mom.
"It just meant everything to me to have that afternoon," she says.
They celebrated Laurel's birthday at Mulino's in White Plains, where they bought the last of three special holiday snow globes.
"It meant a lot because it would remind me of the birthday I had with her and, you know, Christmas was coming," Torres said.
When it was time to return home to Florida, with just minutes until her flight boarded, she realized the water in the globe would keep her from taking it through security.
"I started crying because I realized my time was running out and I was going to have to let go of this piece," Torres said.
A baggage handler saw her tears and told her he'd take it.
"I didn't want her to be amiss with that particular item," he said.
Laurel never thought she'd see it again, but the baggage handler shared the story with his mom.
"I just started crying. I got so emotional because I felt her pain," said his mother, Evelyn Correa.
Even with her husband in the hospital, she was persistent, contacting JetBlue multiple times, including through News 12, eventually getting an email to the CEO, who started an investigation.
The team called about a dozen people on that flight before finally finding a very shocked, very grateful Laurel.
"We live in such a hard world and everybody's stressed and struggling... and for this man to have been so affected by my emotional distress says a lot about there is still humanity out here," Torres said.
Correan hopes to ship the snow globe to Torres in time for Christmas, and Torres hopes to meet the family the next time she visits Westchester, where she's from.
The team at JetBlue was so touched, it gave all three $200 for future travel.
"We are happy to report that we were able to locate the customer and connect her with Evelyn and Jason. We are humbled by this selfless act, and we greatly appreciate the efforts of Evelyn, Jason, and our JetBlue crewmembers who spent the time to determine who the customer was and made the connection happen.
As a token of our gratitude, we’ve provided all three $200 each for future JetBlue travel," a JetBlue spokesperson wrote.